Need help with 1st good cutlery purchase

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Nellie Oleson

Assistant Cook
Joined
Mar 6, 2006
Messages
3
Location
USA, Alabama
I have been lurking here over that last few weeks and have gotten some great info from you guys, but I want your input on my first investment in knives. My wife does the bulk of the cooking for our family of 2 adults and 4 very hungry children. I like to drink wine and make a big mess in kitchen on weekends.

I like the Wusthof Grand Prix II and have held the 8" Chef's Knife. My wife likes the feel too. We have never actually used any good knives (you would laugh at our knife drawer). I was looking at this a knife set on metrokitchen.com: http://www.metrokitchen.com/item/WU-8523/

Please advise me what you think and if I'd be better off buying individual knives to get exactly what I need (Which is everything).

Thanks,
Nellie
 
I have some very fine knives. However, I use on a regular basis: my chef's knife, my bread knife, my paring knife, my honing steel. Sometimes I use my tomato knife (but a bread knife works just fine for that) and sometimes my boning knife a few times a month at most for frenching or butterflying or fileting (but a butcher can do most of that for you too). shears can be good too. A cleaver if you hack apart whole chickens as I do.

so do you need 8 steak knives of that quality? do you need each little special doohicky?? Well if you have $1000 to spend, go ahead, it's a great set. But will you use it all? I don't use half the stuff in my set.

How's the rest of your kitchen? Do you already have fine pots and pans? If not go half on knives and half on some great pans.

My advice is not hard and fast. Use it to think through your options. What ever you decide, have fun in the kitchen!
 
I use my chef's knife, a paring knife, and one in between (I don't know what it is called). I also own a boning knife, but don't use it as much. They are Wustof Classic. But I started with a much less expensive brand many years ago, and they did yeoman's duty. Oh, hubby recently bought the wustof sharpener to make life easier, and he's pleased with it. As long as my knives are sharp, I'm a happy girl. But you want to know a stupid secret? My bread knife is an old ginsu from a TV commercial. It is great on bread, but also -- yes, no kidding, does cut through frozen food. The rest of the knives in that set are long gone, but I keep the bread knife. Whenever we take it out, we have a good laugh.
 
I rarely use more knives than the paring knife and the carving knife.. don't like these big ones... Frank almost ever uses the chef knife.. that's it...
they are all made of Solingen steel, so good german knives :mrgreen:
oh yes.. forget the bread knife wich is at least 50years old by know but still excellent ;o)
 
First off, welcome to the site. I am glad you went from lurking to jumping in!

You took the first correct step which was holding the knives. Since both you and your wife like the feel then I can safely say that those knives are great. If you liked how it felt then those knives will treat you well if you take care of them.

As far as that set goes, I would not recommend getting it. I think you would do much better buying knives one at a time. That set has a lot of knives that you really do not need. For instance, do you really need a 3" Paring Knife
and a 3-1/2" Paring Knife? Do you really need a 4-1/2" Chef's Knife, 6" Chef's Knife, 8" Chef's Knife and a 7" Santoku?

What I would suggest is getting a good sized Chefs knife (just one, not three). I use a 10", but a lot of people find that too big. Since you wife will use it the most have her try the 8" and maybe the 10" and see if either of those work for her. If she has very small hands then maybe the 6" might work best, but only get one. That is all you need. Same thing for the paring knife, you only need one. I have a 3.5" and it is perfect for me. Last I would get a bread knife. It is serrated and can be used for a lot of things other than bread. I use mine for tomatoes all the time.

With those three knives you can do just about anything and you will save yourself a ton of money. Then as time goes on if you find a reason for another knife then you can get it at that point.

When I got my knives (wedding gift) I registered for a cleaver. Quite honestly I could have done without it. I have used it a few times, but for the type of cooking I do it is really not needed.
 
It sure is a nice set, but for that kind of money I would never want a new knife. I'd say go to store and get your self 2-3 at the most 4 knives. Think of what you use at home right now and get the same of a good quality. Wusthof is a good quality, but what's even more important is maintaining those knives. Now having said all of that, I have around 30 knives in my kitchen.
 
Thanks for the input. I have looked some more and agree that collecting what we need over time will be more fun, less expensive, and less inpulsive. Also, getting a few at a time will make good gifts for holidays such as Mother's and Father's day.

I think we'll start with the 8'' Chef's Knife and the 3 1/2'' Paring Knife that is sold as a gift set, along with a sharpening steele and knife block.

Thanks again,
Nellie
 
Whatever knives you choose, make sure to keep them in a knife block, rather than a drawer. It will keep them sharper, and it will be much safer around the kids.
 
Nellie Oleson said:
Thanks for the input. I have looked some more and agree that collecting what we need over time will be more fun, less expensive, and less inpulsive. Also, getting a few at a time will make good gifts for holidays such as Mother's and Father's day.

I think we'll start with the 8'' Chef's Knife and the 3 1/2'' Paring Knife that is sold as a gift set, along with a sharpening steele and knife block.

Thanks again,
Nellie

I started with a small Wusthof GP set and added to it and have been very happy. I think the 8 chefs and paring knife is the perfect start for you.

Honing steel is a good idea.

A knife I use a lot (like others here) is my serrated bread knife.
 
The deed is done. I ended up getting the 8 chef, 3.5 parring knife and the 8 serrated bread knife, along with an oak block and honing steele.

Hopefully, they will be here this weekend, and we can try them out. We're cooking Chinese. I'll let you know how it goes. I do feel much better about this than dropping so much cash without knowing what I actually need.

Nellie
 
I think you made a very good choice. Now you can spend some of that saved money on a decent cutting board :LOL:
 
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